Case Studies and Examples

The case studies highlight how local governments, non-profits,
community organizations, and the private sector are responding to
climate change. New case studies will be added periodically. Use
the submission form below to recommend an innovative effort that
should be included.

Challenges and Solutions

The case studies are organized by solutions that practitioners are
finding to a common set of challenges in adaptation. These challenges
span the spectrum of community planning to project implementation.

In addition to the case studies developed by OPR staff, the
Clearinghouse includes case studies from the Ocean Protection
Council, the Local Government Commission’s CivicSpark program,
CalTrans’ SB1 Adaptation Planning grantees, and more.

Other Examples

Find more case studies and examples on the following sites:

The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research has many ongoing partnerships and programs to produce case studies of replicable best practices, some of which are highlighted in the Best Practice Pilot Program. The office is currently collecting a variety of case studies that will be updated on an ongoing basis.

The Georgetown Adaptation Clearinghouse provides resources that help policymakers at all levels of governments reduce or avoid the impacts of climate change to communities in the United States. The Adaptation Clearinghouse focuses on climate change impacts that adversely affect people and our built environment. Content focal areas include the water, coastal, transportation, infrastructure and public health sectors, and adaptation planning, policies, laws, and governance.

The Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKEX) aims to build a shared knowledge base for managing natural and built systems in the face of rapid climate change. Just as importantly, it is intended to help build an innovative community of practice. It helps users to find appropriate resources quickly by vetting and clearly organizing the best information available, building a community via an interactive online platform, creating a directory of practitioners to share knowledge and strategies, an identifying and explaining data tools and information available from other sites. CakeX consists of case studies, a virtual library, directory and tools and houses a variety of community forums for the discussion of current issues in climate adaptation.

The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit is a website designed to help people find and use tools, information, and subject matter expertise to build climate resilience, offering information from all across the U.S. federal government in one easy-to-use location. The goal of the Toolkit is to improve people’s ability to understand and manage their climate-related risks and opportunities, and to help them make their communities and businesses more resilient to extreme events. Visit their easy-to-use case studies page to filter by threat/stressor, topic, region, and steps to resilience.

The Local Government Commission works to build livable communities and local leadership by connecting leaders via innovative programs and network opportunities, advancing policies through participation at the local and state level, and implementing solutions as technical assistance provider to local jurisdictions. LGC is an active leader in California climate adaptation by playing an active partnership role in the Alliance for Regional Collaboratives for Climate Adaptation (ARCCA), administering the Governor’s Initiative AmeriCorps program, CivicSpark , and much more. Visit their climate change resources page or browse current CivicSpark projects taking place throughout the state to stay up to date on some of their adaptation and resilience-focused work.

The Institute for Local Government has a number of adaptation resources including case studies of climate adaptation plans in California to showcase the variety of formats adaptation planning can take and the many levels and forms of government that can make it happen. Local actions being taken in California through policy and program initiatives. Through the GIS map, click on any local government to see the work they are doing on climate change.

California Natural Resources Agency. 2018

FloodingSea level rise

Project or Example

California state agencies collaborated to compile each of these examples, associated with Safeguarding California's 2018 update, to show how California is preparing for and adjusting to various extreme events brought on by climate change. … Each of these examples highlights unique strategies, funded by the state, to combat and adapt to the effects of climate change. The examples are tagged with icons from the Safeguarding California Report, classifying stories by sector. Marin County in this example conducted an in-depth sea level rise vulnerability assessment, and also conducted community engagement and outreach on these issues.

California Ocean Protection Council. 2018

Extreme stormsFloodingSea level rise

Case Study

The Humboldt Bay Sea Level Rise Adaptation Planning Project (Project) is a multi-phased regional collaboration funded by the California State Coastal Conservancy. Its purpose is to inform the public and local agencies of the risk that … sea level rise poses to the communities and environment on Humboldt Bay and identify adaptation strategies and options to protect critical regional assets.

California Ocean Protection Council. 2018

Sea level rise

Case Study

The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative identified emerging legal risks to local governments concerning sea level rise and spotlighted expertise and knowledge gaps on these issues among their members. The Collaborative, as part of a … large NOAA-funded resiliency project, commissioned a report by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). ELI analyzes five strategies for dealing with sea level rise impacts, and for each of the 5 strategies, provides an overview of the general legal risk and an outline of the legal context. After discussing that information, ELI describes a set of possible scenarios that local governments could face around this strategy.

California Ocean Protection Council. 2018

Extreme stormsFloodingSea level rise

Case Study

Regional AdaptLA advances a regional sea level rise and coastal impacts planning process and shares critical scientific information to inform planning efforts. This multi-year project brings together a coalition of local municipalities, Los … Angeles County, and other organizations, including USC Sea Grant. The program increases collaboration among coalition partners, as well as use of the best available science in planning efforts. This has helped many cities to make progress in integrating climate change considerations into their existing planning mechanisms and evaluating potential strategies for addressing sea level rise impacts.

California Natural Resources Agency. 2018

FloodingSea level rise

Project or Example

California state agencies collaborated to compile each of these examples, associated with Safeguarding California's 2018 update, to show how California is preparing for and adjusting to various extreme events brought on by climate change. … Each of these examples highlights unique strategies, funded by the state, to combat and adapt to the effects of climate change. The examples are tagged with icons from the Safeguarding California Report, classifying stories by sector. This example highlights the Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Program, a collaborative sea level rise adaptation planning program building local and regional capacity in the San Francisco Bay area to plan for and implement adaptation responses.

California Natural Resources Agency. 2018

Extreme stormsFloodingSea level rise

Project or Example

California state agencies collaborated to compile each of these examples, associated with Safeguarding California's 2018 update, to show how California is preparing for and adjusting to various extreme events brought on by climate change. … Each of these examples highlights unique strategies, funded by the state, to combat and adapt to the effects of climate change. The examples are tagged with icons from the Safeguarding California Report, classifying stories by sector. This example showcases a living shoreline project in Southern California to protect the Pacific Coast Highway while also producing native dune habitat and enhancing the public's access to the coast.

California Ocean Protection Council. 2018

FloodingSea level rise

Project or Example

This report is the summary of California Ocean Protection Council’s decision regarding a dune restoration project designed to protect a segment of road from future flooding and sea level rise. The report includes links to project details … such as a site map and the Initial Study of Mitigated Negative Declaration under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

The Nature Conservancy. 2017

FloodingSea level rise

Case StudyProject or Example

This report summarizes natural infrastructure projects for a range of settings in coastal California. Each case study covers the background, permitting, planning, implementation, performance, and key lessons learned from each project in order … to provide the critical information needed to implement successful adaptation strategies to address coastal issues, and inspire other communities by highlighting the lessons learned.

San Francisco Estuary Partnership. 2018

FloodingSea level rise

Data, tools, and researchProject or Example

This website highlights the research work done at the Corte Madera Marsh in Marin. The goal of the work is to better understand flood control and wave attenuation benefits of tidal wetlands, the vulnerability of tidal wetlands to sea … level rise, and ways to improve the resiliency of this critical habitat so that flood control and wave attenuation benefits of are maintained into the future. Data was collected in 2009 and 2010. This research resulted in more detailed understanding of wetland restoration strategies that will increase resilience to, and mitigation of, climate change impacts on water quality; design recommendations for shoreline adaptation strategies that reduce shoreline flooding while conserving or restoring wetlands; and distribution of climate preparedness packages to local governments. The website provides access to full detailed reports or the research and results.

Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. 2015

Sea level rise

Project or Example

This report is a final Environmental Assessment for a sea level rise adaptation demonstration project. The project is set on the foredunes of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. In this project invasive plant species will be removed … and the dunes will be revegetated with native species. Data will be collected to analyze the effectiveness of this project in terms of future sea level rise.